Reputation and Post Rating System

I haven't been here long, but I do notice that the reputation system doesn't really seem to be used for much more than an ad hominem attack in most cases. I've noticed that Miya, despite her excellent posting in our latest RP, has repeatedly had her posts marked down in reputation with what seems like no cause. I've had posts giving creative work and community ideas be marked down with nary an explanation as well. Random RP posts seem to attract the minus sign, too. I've seen the rep system through the posts being used responsibly, but it seems to be the exception to the rule.

What I'd like to suggest as solutions are two things:
A) A complete removal of the system. While extreme, it does seem only fair as the system hardly has much of a use in its current state.
or
B) A time limit on number of post rankings per [time period]. On most forums, it's anywhere from 1-3 reputation adjustments per month per user, but I'm not certain if this is applicable for the system implemented here, but it would prevent people from seeing huge blocks of red rep bars on the sides of their RPs for no reason.

Since I don't know the system, I don't know what can be implemented. However, it's kinda insulting to see good posts in a private RP turn red with no real explanation. I think, in theory, the system is a great way to share approval on good mentions and highlight poor content, but in practice I think more people get offended than complimented with it.

Just my two cents.

A thread like this was posted a while ago. I must agree, there are quite a few posts that I see reped down for seemingly no reason, and perhaps a reform is indeed in order. However like it was stated in the last thread as well, rep is nothing but a number. It means nothing. Akin to your post count, EXP, and title. Just there for show.

It's not much different than how every popular YouTube video has a few dislike voted on it... it's not really because they disliked it, they want to be different or hope someone will complain about the bad votes and start drama. I don't see it being a bad idea, just in need of a little more refinement to lessen the abuse it's gotten.

A possible alternative might be a "like" system sort of similar to what Facebook and its knockoffs have. Just put a little star in the corner that you click on if you like a particular post, and it shows how many likes that post has when you mouse over it. Granted there's no negative voting option, but honestly if someone's posting is that bad they're probably going to have someone tell them directly eventually.

Another possibility might be to let mods and admins be able to see who voted on a post and what they chose, so they can warn anyone who's using it inappropriately. Of course, having specific names attached always opens up a risk in itself, but it's still something to consider.

Sparker, you actually bring up a good point because sometimes, its understandable if something gets down voted if someone doesn't like the idea or the post, but if its chronically being abused, as in down voted by the same person for the same person, the admins and mods should have the power and right to deactivate the reputation system for that person, disallowing them to use it. I actually see it all the time and it makes sense, it doesn't need to be removed Daine, you have to fix it so it would work and not get the abuse it gets but then again, since it doesn't mean anything why do people put so much attention into it anyways. Honestly, I feel like saying the same thing that I was told about the post count. "It's just a number and it doesn't mean anything." ~ Anonymous Well, if we fix it up the right way then it may be useful as to show how others like the posts that are done, not to show popularity or hatred or anything, but the quality of posts, and if I am correct, wasn't that the purpose of the Rep system anyways? Just don't remove something that has a problem, fix it first and it it still has problems after multiple fixes, or complaints, THEN get rid of it, don't skip step one of trial and error you know ;3

Abusing it is immature... enough said. Assuming we're all mature as we should be here, you'd think there wouldn't be petty issues like that. But, of course, there are. Be glad they took out the statistical impact of negative votes, at least; the first time someone whined about it was because their rep hit -14 or so.

1. Some people just go through threads and vote everybody up. Which is nice, yes, but some people take that little statistic as reason to get a giant ego, which is irritating.

2. Other people vote people down for no reason. Which is just immature and lame.

Myself... I vote things up in threads if they're constructive, helpful and understandable. Even if it's against my opinion. And I don't vote things down for disagreeing with me, by extension; I give down votes on posts that make no sense.

As for RPs... I award up votes to anything that's above the requirement for the RP's literacy level... and down votes for anything that falls below. But only if I'm in the RP. Hate to seem brutal, but... if you're RPing with me and I don't think it's up to par, I'm voting it down. If it's particularly bad, I won't hesitate to tell people directly, though.

But, meh. That's my opinion on 'acceptable use' of the rep system. As for my opinion, though... if people can't use it maturely, go ahead and take it down.

Sigh, even though its jus a number, i really like the faceebook esq idea. I dont really know about you guys, but I was always taught "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all", however I do agree with houndoom's rp syastem to an extent. *Gets mobbed with minus votes for the who knows how many times that I failed to rp literately*

I've think we've reached a consensus here. I will go ahead and take down the Reputation system and see if it can't be replaced by something a bit more worthwhile; it was an experiment in the first place, and apparently a failed one at that. Likewise, I'm pretty tired of seeing it get improperly used and would prefer that people offer their opinions on a post in a more written and constructive manner. Thanks for the suggestions, guys.